Wyldfire:So I did a little google searching before I decided to ask, but I'm assuming that is the ruling party's headquarters on fire...so who is that surrounding it? The protestors? And who the hell is the guy talking?

This blog (difficulty: russian, lots of pics, some nsfw ones hidden under a link) says that it's the barricades that are burning not the buildings. The buildings are government (local, city hall iirc) that have been surrounded by and semi-occupied by the protesters since day one, i don't think either side would torch these.

It's not that unusual to see, especially if the goal is to get international coverage.Femen has been known to pay prostitutes and others to "protest" though, so they might not even understand English.

God I loved the tshirts in China. It was all the rage to have English writing on your shirt. Coca-cola, Nike, whatever. However, the cheaper ones didn't have rights and didn't really care. So they'd put Cow and Grocery Store on the shirts and sell it to the hip kids.

rpl:This blog (difficulty: russian, lots of pics, some nsfw ones hidden under a link) says that it's the barricades that are burning not the buildings. The buildings are government (local, city hall iirc) that have been surrounded by and semi-occupied by the protesters since day one, i don't think either side would torch these.

Cool thanks. I couldn't find anything definitive and this is quite an interesting direction the protests have taken. I just didn't know what exactly was on fire at this point :P

xaldin:French revolution, around 40k dead. American civil war around 750k dead. Armenian Genocide around 1M dead. Russian civil war about 9M. Mao Zedon's regime in China around 40M dead.

9 dead? Please that's not even a rough night in an inner city.

The largest city in the US, New York City, including all the rough parts like Hunts Point, had 332 murders for the entire year of 2013. 9 in a day, just in a single event, is a lot, even for someplace like Houston.

rkiller1:JesusJuice: Take note, 99%ers. This is how you make a government listen.

How? With green lasers and hand-to-hand combat in the streets against armed authorities? For sure, the government is listening but I suspect the protesters won't like their reply.

They offered the protest leaders seats in the government.

Each day the protests continue is costing the Ukraine government not just in terms of money, but international legitimacy. If you think this isn't harming the Ukrainian political establishment in a big way you're fooling yourself.

MisterTweak:xaldin: French revolution, around 40k dead. American civil war around 750k dead. Armenian Genocide around 1M dead. Russian civil war about 9M. Mao Zedon's regime in China around 40M dead.

9 dead? Please that's not even a rough night in an inner city.

The largest city in the US, New York City, including all the rough parts like Hunts Point, had 332 murders for the entire year of 2013. 9 in a day, just in a single event, is a lot, even for someplace like Houston.

This isn't even a war, either, it's just a protest.

Chicago had 9 in a day multiple times last year? Or something like that. I think. CHICAGO SUCKS!

Yes, they are tearing up the little tent like structures, no idea who put them up, im guessing its not them. And yes, came here to say it looks like leaf cutter ants. My guess is as long as they stand there playing music and chanting and whatever, the military wont move it. But...you never know. They might just get tired of the bullshiat and wade in with wooden shampoos and rubber bullets and sting ball grenades. Time will tell. They look pretty contained now, but im guessing the tards in the crowd will soon taunt the dynamite monkeys and all hell will break loose.

Shenanigans. Lots and lots of shenanigans. The current revolutionaries are on the same side as the previous revolutionaries; there was an elected change of power in 2010 to the pre-revolutionary ruling faction because the revolutionaries weren't able to quickly fix the results of 70 years of Soviet oppression and more than a decade of post-Soviet corruption. The current rulers are just as pro-Soviet and corrupt as they were before the 2004 revolution, hence the current re-ignition of said revolution. It doesn't help that they tried the opposition leader for corruption and imprisoned her.

It's not just good guys vs. bad guys; there's a big ethnic divide in Ukraine between ethnic Russians descended from people relocated there by Stalin, and ethnic Ukrainians. The Russian-speakers who tend to support the government are more pro-Russia, obviously, while the more revolution-favoring Ukrainian-speakers (it's a dialect very close to Russian) are more pro-EU and want to join NATO. And there's a bunch of other politics involved in forming the two sides. Suffice to say, the current government was elected in 2010 with a plurality, in a relatively fair vote, but the opposition thinks they've abused their mandate to the point where waiting until the 2015 elections is not an option.

You should read up on what all went on. There was dioxin poisoning of the opposition coalition leader and former President, for instance.